Helicopter filming Norway movie crashes; one killed

A helicopter crashed in Benton County this afternoon, killing one person on a crew that was filming a movie in Iowa.

KCRG television chopper pilot Bobby Ratliff flew to the scene soon afterwards to survey the wreckage. “It does look like a serious crash, not a precautionary landing,” Ratliff told viewers. “There is a lot of destruction to the fuselage of the helicopter, a lot of parts scattered over a wide area. So we have a serious accident.”

A little after one this afternoon the call went out that the film crew’s chopper had crashed with a pilot, a producer and photographer on board. Witnesses say the helicopter was flying low while they filmed a parade scene for the movie “The Final Season.” Observers say the chopper hit some power lines and went down.

One person was killed in the crash; two others were critically injured. They were airlifted by a medical helicopter to an area hospital. The rural area where the chopper went down is at 33rd Street and Highway 151 in Walford, a town of 1200 people about seven miles southwest of Cedar Rapids. State troopers have the area roped off, waiting for federal investigators to arrive on the scene.